Xapian discuss - Jul 2011 - Writing a Quick Start Guide to Xapian

Google are holding a GSoC "Doc Camp" this year the week before the
annual mentor summit - the dates for Doc Camp are 17-21 October, and the
location is Google HQ in Mountain View, California, USA.

A major part of this will be several Book Sprints for writing Quick
Start guides for specific organisations taking part in GSoC.  They're
currently inviting proposals, and I'd like to submit one.  I took part
in a book sprint of this format in 2009, and have been wanting to hold
one to do a "Xapian book" ever since.  The issue has been how to get
enough people together in one place, and this seems a good opportunity,
particularly as a Quick Start guide would fix one of the weaker aspects
of the current docs.

Details are at the URL below, but a key thing to note is that
participation is open to *ANYONE*, not only those involved as mentors
this year.  Google are offering to pay for food and accommodation costs,
and you can also apply for some or all of your travel costs.  It's right
before the mentor summit, so if you're attending that (for Xapian or
another org) transport costs aren't an issue anyway.  The URL is:

https://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/home

As part of the proposal, we can nominate up to 5 people.  It would be
good to have a range of familiarity with Xapian - we clearly need there
to be at least one person with plenty of Xapian experience in the team
to ensure the content is accurate, but we also really need some people
who are fairly new to Xapian and are better able to put themselves in
the shoes of the people who most need such a book.

We need to submit a proposal before 5th August, so we have a week and a
bit.  So if you can be available that week and are interested, or would
just like to know more, please get in touch.

Cheers,
    Olly

Olly

This sounds like an amazing opportunity; I'd certainly love to be
involved in this. I've been working with Xapian in PHP for a few years
now and I think I've developed a fairly good grip on how to use it
(within our specific environment) and also think I have the language
capability to write documentation.

I can make myself available for that week and I'd certainly be
interested; the only catch is that I'm based in London.

Any thoughts?

Justin

On Thu, 2011-07-28 at 06:12 +0100,
xapian-discuss-request at lists.xapian.org wrote:

> Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:16:08 +1200
> From: Olly Betts <olly at survex.com>
> Subject: [Xapian-discuss] Writing a Quick Start Guide to Xapian
> To: xapian-discuss at lists.xapian.org
> Message-ID: <20110727111607.GA3346 at cavity>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> Google are holding a GSoC "Doc Camp" this year the week before
the
> annual mentor summit - the dates for Doc Camp are 17-21 October, and the
> location is Google HQ in Mountain View, California, USA.
> 
> A major part of this will be several Book Sprints for writing Quick
> Start guides for specific organisations taking part in GSoC.  They're
> currently inviting proposals, and I'd like to submit one.  I took part
> in a book sprint of this format in 2009, and have been wanting to hold
> one to do a "Xapian book" ever since.  The issue has been how to
get
> enough people together in one place, and this seems a good opportunity,
> particularly as a Quick Start guide would fix one of the weaker aspects
> of the current docs.
> 
> Details are at the URL below, but a key thing to note is that
> participation is open to *ANYONE*, not only those involved as mentors
> this year.  Google are offering to pay for food and accommodation costs,
> and you can also apply for some or all of your travel costs.  It's
right
> before the mentor summit, so if you're attending that (for Xapian or
> another org) transport costs aren't an issue anyway.  The URL is:
> 
> https://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/home
> 
> As part of the proposal, we can nominate up to 5 people.  It would be
> good to have a range of familiarity with Xapian - we clearly need there
> to be at least one person with plenty of Xapian experience in the team
> to ensure the content is accurate, but we also really need some people
> who are fairly new to Xapian and are better able to put themselves in
> the shoes of the people who most need such a book.
> 
> We need to submit a proposal before 5th August, so we have a week and a
> bit.  So if you can be available that week and are interested, or would
> just like to know more, please get in touch.
> 
> Cheers,
>     Olly

I would also be interested in this, and happy to contribute from my experience
of developing a number of Xapian powered sites, the most complex of which is
http://tilt.ft.com.  I'm also based in London.
> Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:16:08 +1200
> From: Olly Betts <olly at survex.com>
> Subject: [Xapian-discuss] Writing a Quick Start Guide to Xapian
> To: xapian-discuss at lists.xapian.org
> Message-ID: <20110727111607.GA3346 at cavity>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> Google are holding a GSoC "Doc Camp" this year the week before
the
> annual mentor summit - the dates for Doc Camp are 17-21 October, and the
> location is Google HQ in Mountain View, California, USA.
> 
> A major part of this will be several Book Sprints for writing Quick
> Start guides for specific organisations taking part in GSoC.  They're
> currently inviting proposals, and I'd like to submit one.  I took part
> in a book sprint of this format in 2009, and have been wanting to hold
> one to do a "Xapian book" ever since.  The issue has been how to
get
> enough people together in one place, and this seems a good opportunity,
> particularly as a Quick Start guide would fix one of the weaker aspects
> of the current docs.
> 
> Details are at the URL below, but a key thing to note is that
> participation is open to *ANYONE*, not only those involved as mentors
> this year.  Google are offering to pay for food and accommodation costs,
> and you can also apply for some or all of your travel costs.  It's
right
> before the mentor summit, so if you're attending that (for Xapian or
> another org) transport costs aren't an issue anyway.  The URL is:
> 
> https://sites.google.com/site/docsprintsummit/home
> 
> As part of the proposal, we can nominate up to 5 people.  It would be
> good to have a range of familiarity with Xapian - we clearly need there
> to be at least one person with plenty of Xapian experience in the team
> to ensure the content is accurate, but we also really need some people
> who are fairly new to Xapian and are better able to put themselves in
> the shoes of the people who most need such a book.
> 
> We need to submit a proposal before 5th August, so we have a week and a
> bit.  So if you can be available that week and are interested, or would
> just like to know more, please get in touch.
> 
> Cheers,
>     Olly